Creative photography

[Mike54]

I've been playing with black and white conversions for the last couple of days and would appreciate your thoughts on the (subtle?) differences between these 2 versions. I put both copies on a page here.

[Nick]

Goodness Mike, this is simply beautiful stuff!

Nick

[bdery]

I think I like the second one a little bit more, nerer a true B&W. But I think this shot could look very good with a slightly greenish cast, or maybe even slightly purple. I've seen some pics done this way, they had a quality lacking with true B&W. Basically create a B&W, then play with colors a bit to create the tint. Maybe it wouln't work, though.

[Mike54]

I appreciate you both looking. Viewing the images on my laptop the difference between the two is very minor. On my monitor at home however there is a very slight sepia tint to the first (don't know if it's noticeable to you guys). I was just wondering which might be preferable.

Bernard, DPP offers a tone adjustment for monochrome to allow sepia, blue, purple or green tinting but it seems way over done when I try it. Time to learn more about the software and see if I can adjust it down a little.

[Deb]

Hi there. I agree with Bernard that the second one appears a bit more neutral in tone. On my monitor, it looks like the second one has had the shadows lightened a bit more. Both shots are stunning but I prefer the mood of the top one.  

Mike, if you're interested, there are some PS actions available for conversion and toning. You can set the opacity to deepen or weaken the effect. You can find some neat ones at www.thelightsrightstudio.com .

[Mike54]

Time to learn more about the software and see if I can adjust it down a little.

Quick follow up - DPP has more adjustments within it than I realized...    

note to self, "experiment more".

[Deb]

"experiment more".

That's on my New Year's resolution list.  

[Mike54]

but I prefer the mood of the top one

I do too Deb, I spent a couple of hours last night trying to duplicate it in PSP X but just couldn't get it the same. Since I do most of my (minimalistic) post processing in DPP anyway I guess I can stick with that (now that I'm getting to know it better ).
I will check out those scripts though, just in case.